Chuseok part 1

Hi,

We are nearly finished a three day holiday here in Korea called Chuseok, a time which Koreans traditionally use to go back to their home town and get together with all the family. We used it to head down to Busan, Korea's second largest city which is down on the South-East coast.

The adventure began on Friday night after work when myself, Neil and Gordie (a boy from Stirling uni who has been out here for 9 months now) met up and headed into Seoul for a night out. Our train was at 7am so we packed light and just stayed out on the town until then. It made for a rather hungover train ride down, but saved us getting a room for the night!

The train that we caught to Busan is called the KTX, and is the Korean equivelant of the TGV in France. It puts Virgin and GNER to shame. Punctual to the second, quiet, clean and very fast (300+km/hr at some points) it got us down to Busan in around 3 hours. I managed to stay awake almost the whole way and watched the countryside whizz by. Koreans seem to enjoy erecting massive apartment blocks pretty much anywhere, and to be honest a lot of the scenery on the way down was a repetetive procession of roads, apartment blocks, rice fields and densely forested hills. Interesting, but very similar. Here's a few pictures of the journey.

Off we go!

<- A typical sight on the train...lots of apartments

Gordie on the KTX! ->

We also knew a few other folk who were going to be in Busan that night so we got a taxi to where they were staying and managed to get a room there as well. It was called the Arpina Youth Hostel, but it may as well have been called the Arpina Hotel. For £15 a night we got a 3 bed room with balcony, Sky TV, en-suite bathroom, mini fridge and all the other usual hotel like stuff. The "hostel" itself had a swimming pool, golf driving range, sauna and gym. Ridiculous!

After we unpacked and had a wee sleep we headed down to the nearby Hae-Undae beach, which is reckoned to be Busan's best (there are 7 others I think). It was pretty quiet, but apparantly in July it is wall-to-wall parasols. We had a swim in the warmish water and got very burnt. With a bit of a breeze blowing it creeps up on you!

Thought I'd give you all a laugh. I think that was pre-burning.

That night we sampled the Busan nightlife (very good) and had a steak dinner at Vips (Vips anyone?) which was actually pretty good. The Koreans aren't the best at steaks but mine was very tasty.

On Sunday we took a boat ride from near Hae-Undae beach under the Gwangandaegyo bridge, a big bridge (really?) that connects different bits of Busan. It was rather surreal, the tour was interspersed by bits of Korean pop music and also a smooth talking captain presumably pointing out the sights (all in Korean). We also had the pleasure of being accompanied by a suit and sunglasses-wearing Korean man who basically abandoned his own family to come and stand (very close) to us. Gordie has some photos of him which I will steal from Bebo and post here when he puts them up. Here are some of my photos and a video (thanks to Neil Munro for the Die Hard 4 commentary) of us going under the bridge.

Hae-Undae beach from the sea.

the bridge.

I also saw what I think is the Korean equivalent of Tobermory.

After the boat ride we caught a taxi to the Jagalachi fish market (Korea's largest). It was amazing. Thousands of stalls selling live fish of all kinds, dead fish, dried fish, squid and octopus, shellfish, massive crabs, and lots of other things. Combine this with the smell, lots of people shouting and trying to get you to buy from them, and it was almost too much. We wandered around, I took hundreds of photos, here are a couple plus a video of something horrible......we now think it might have been an eel that had been skinned alive (yeah i know).

We then proceeded to try some of things we had just seen. First up was what we think was a sea worm. It was cut up into chunks and served in a spicy sauce, it was very rubbery. I had a few bits but couldnt really handle the texture, and we didnt come close to finishing the plate. The second dish, a whole grilled fish (something a bit like a snapper I think) was much better. We had it with the usual assortment of side dishes and it was a very tasty meal, the fish tasted very fresh and was full of flavour. In the picture below the fish is furthest plate away, the closest is a bowl of soup with tofu in it. The red stuff is Kimchi (which I am becoming addicted to).

After dinner we headed back to the hostel for a rest and then tried to go out and watch the Man U vs Chelsea game, but got a bit lost and couldnt find anywhere. We ended up in an area called "Texas St" which was full of Russian sailors and prostitutes. It was the most uncomfortable I have felt since arriving in Korea, but we made a swift exit and moved elsewhere. And on that happy note........... :) I will finish this installment. The rest of our time in Busan and our day in Seoul will follow shortly, until then, I hope everyone back home is well.

Lots of love, Neil